


The Winter Rose (2012)

by Elizabeth A Nield (KayleeArafinwiel)



Series: A Poet's Life For Me: Introspections and Reflections [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Elegy, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 12:05:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8143294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayleeArafinwiel/pseuds/Elizabeth%20A%20Nield
Summary: For my grandmother, and my family.





	

 

 

In the chill of Winter's keep

A seed of hope was born;

On the Bay's far eastern shore

In nineteen thirty-one.

Of Irish and of German blood

Was this maid-child sprung,

Her loving father's only seed,

Though her mother had borne sons.

The elder brothers gladly played

With their half-sister dear;

They even took her father's name

So great their love for her.

In Albany, there by the Bay,

The Winter Rose grew fair,

Years went by, she loved and wed,

And raised her own blooms there.

Nineteen sixty-six came swift;

The Winter Rose foreswore

The sunny homelands of her youth

For her country's eastern shore.

In the Garden State she made a home

Three children still to tend,

But her husband dear was lost to her

In quarrels without end.

She returned alone unto the West

With children three in tow;

In nineteen seventy-three the first

From her sweet nest did go.

The Winter Rose fretted o'er her child

Born in summer's latter days;

But the firstborn homeward came often

With tales worthy of praise.

The second, her only son, was next

To leave her and move on;

Her second husband cleaved to her

Once the boy was flown and gone.

The Winter Rose's life moved on,

Her children led their lives peacefully,

Her firstborn girl in '84 was wed

When the Rose was fifty-three.

Before the next year was out,

A daughter had been born;

The Winter Rose held tenderly

The first of her daughter's line.

The undisputed Matriarch

Of the family now she was;

In '86, when her Mother's eyes

Closed upon the Winter Rose.

For twenty years she reigned supreme

In her descendants' hearts;

Daughters, son and grandchildren

Never were torn apart.

But when winter's chill began to ease

In sixth year of century renewed,

Spring brought with it dire news

That lowered the family's mood.

_Cancer!_ The inescapable,

"We'll try," the doctors claimed.

The Winter Rose deferred to them

And her family acclaimed

The efforts of physicians' technology

To heal multiplying maladies;

Summer burgeoned with new hope

And set wounded hearts at ease.

She missed a high school graduation

Hoping that she might get well;

Promising her second-born granddaughter

"I'll see you graduate college. I will."

In Autumn her condition had

By then rapidly declined;

The doctors' surety by now

Was no longer so resigned.

As winter's chill began to bite,

The Winter Rose did fade;

It took her slowly, painfully,

And on me charge she laid.

"Take care of your mother," she said

It's not as easy as it seems.

Six years ago, the Winter Rose's death

Broke my heart, and killed my dreams.


End file.
